Tuesday, April 7, 2009 7:12 AM CDT
Temples, family, friends enjoy Hall of Fame day
By Brian Nielsen, Sports Editor
bnielsen@jg-tc.com
Thought maybe Saturday’s a room full of football coaches would send back good news – or at least rumors – about high school coaching openings.
You know, like the one at Mattoon.
If so, Gerald Temples, now a year-plus removed from being that coach, relayed none of that.
“This was about old acquaintances,” Temples said.
It no doubt was.
Temples was one of 17 inducted into the Illinois High School Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame at Saturday’s banquet at Champaign and the Oakland native talked with the same kind of vigor he did after one of his big wins.
“It was just a great experience,” Temples said. “I got to sit and visit with Bob Shannon who went in. Bob gave the acceptance speech for everybody. It was handled very well, very classy, very humbling. They did a really fantastic job of running the thing.”
Shannon spoke for all of the inductees with good reason, being the state’s headline coach with five state championships and two mythical national titles during his 22 years at East St. Louis.
As an assistant coach at Millikin University in the 1990s, Temples got to know Shannon when recruiting at East St. Louis.
Some of the stories told Saturday went back before that.
Temples remembers a big game in the ‘80s when both his Oakland team and a Villa Grove team coached by Tim Nolen were state-ranked and playing on a Saturday when many fans from the area circled the field.
“From that point on we’ve been very close,” Temples said.
Fittingly, the guy presenting the plaques on Saturday was Nolen, now coaching at Robinson and moving up to president of the Illinois High School Football Coaches Association.
“To get the plaque from Tim and Tim being a good friend of mine was really special,” Temples said.
Decatur St. Teresa coach Scott Davis and retired Pekin coach Dale Patton were other good friends Temples got to see at the ceremony.
The coach of Mattoon’s Big 12 Conference foe Normal was there, too.
Of course, that’s also Temples’ son Wes, who became the Ironmen’s head coach last year, the first year of coaching retirement for his father.
Family and friends were the most special of plenty of special acquaintances at the hall of fame banquet. Former Mattoon Athletic Director Steve Parker and Central A&M coach Mark Ramsay, for whom Temples worked before taking the Mattoon job, were among them along with former assistant coaches.
“It was quite an experience, one I will always remember and treasure forever,” Temples said.
“A lot of former coaches who were assistants all came up. That was very nice of them. It’s something they didn’t have to do, to give up their day. An awful lot of good people and friends we were able to see it. It was awfully nice of them. It was greatly appreciated.”
Many appreciated Temples, who posted a 134-75 career record as a head coach and resurrected Mattoon’s program from one that had a 39-game losing streak to one that went to the IHSA playoffs six times in his 11 years with the Green Wave.
Temples laughs at any speculation that he might return to his old Mattoon job that became open again with Nat Zunkel’s resignation.
“When I was coaching there were probably people who thought I shouldn’t be,” Temples said.
He seems occupied well enough now in his second career selling scoreboards.
“I’m busier than heck,” he said. “You get to go around talking to coaches and (athletic directors) you already know.”
After all, you can’t see everyone at one hall of fame banquet.
Brian Nielsen is sports editor of the Journal Gazette/Times-Courier. Contact him at bnielsen@jg-tc.com or 238-6856.
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Niner wrote on Apr 7, 2009 12:53 PM: